Highlights
C&EN: Europium complex harvests ambient energy to power minirobots
20 November 2025Inchworms can stroll for hours using scraps of heat from the environment.
Nature Biotechnology: Chemistry Nobel materials in the clinic
14 November 2025Human trials using metal–organic frameworks for drug delivery are underway, but challenges remain.
C&EN: Trace additive cleans up Fischer-Tropsch synthesis
31 October 2025A dash of bromomethane curbs carbon dioxide emissions from industrial process used to make olefins from syngas.
Nature: AI is dreaming up millions of new materials. Are they any good?
03 October 2025Critics slammed attempts by Google, Microsoft and Meta to speed up materials discovery. But behind the hype, there is progress.
Nature: How should ‘mirror life’ research be restricted? Debate heats up
16 September 2025Some researchers are calling for strict limits, while others speak out against prematurely halting basic science.
TESTIMONIALS
“As an editor and reporter, Mark Peplow is fast, accurate, and versatile. He covers science policy and pure research with equal passion, and his writing combines a scientist’s precision with a journalist’s verve.” Tim Appenzeller
Former Chief Magazine Editor at Nature, now News Editor at Science
"Mark guided me through some of the most challenging stories I've written. These are pieces I might not have attempted were it not for his steady editorial hand." Linda Nordling
Freelance Journalist, South Africa
“Working with Mark is never anything other than a pleasure. He is the kind of editor that writers hope for: able to identify what needs fixing and what doesn’t, bringing to bear a wealth of knowledge, always clear, prompt and easy to talk with. Much of that comes from being a splendid writer himself.”
Philip Ball
Freelance Science Writer
Category Archives: Highlights
C&EN: Catalyst persuades alcohols to offer a helping hand for C-H activation
Tailored ligand on palladium catalyst uses hydrogen bonding to orchestrate reaction.
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Nature Biotechnology: ‘Clicked’ drugs: researchers prove the remarkable chemistry in humans
Bioorthogonal click chemistry is being used in patients to help target cancer medicines and diagnostic imaging agents.
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C&EN: Medicinal chemistry methods miniaturized for high-throughput experimentation
Researchers redesign 4 workhorse reactions to run in microliter droplets.
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C&EN: Diberyllocene is a Be–Be king
First solid compound to contain a beryllium-beryllium bond could unlock unusual chemistry.
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C&EN: Protein enables better lanthanide separations
A newly discovered form of lanmodulin offers a more efficient way to separate rare earth elements.
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Nature: Skeleton Crew
An explosion of methods to insert, delete or swap single atoms in the cores of molecules could accelerate drug discovery.
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C&EN’s Talented 12: Raúl Hernández Sánchez
This supramolecular chemist uses molecular assemblies to purify water and develop clean energy catalysts.
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C&EN’s Talented 12: Charlotte Vogt
This spectroscopist probes catalysts to accelerate the world’s transition to clean energy.
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C&EN: Chemists think outside the box to craft tricky cubanes
Using cubanes in place of benzene rings could help fine-tune the properties of drug candidates.
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C&EN: Porous pesticide carrier also promotes plant growth
Metal-organic framework deploys avermectins against citrus mites.
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